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| Thomas Keneally - the author's keynote lecture at the University of Melbourne's Festival of ideas will be streamed live into Shepparton. |
Cleaning your teeth or putting a man on the moon where both, at first, little more than ideas.
That thought, or idea, expands, becomes intent and then, with effort, reality.
Leaning on that interpretation, ideas are integral to the human infrastructure and as such are the cornerstone of what it is that ignites and sustains love and, by contrast, they are also the starting point of all evil that has troubled humankind for millennia.
Ideas in our contemporary world are considered to be the province of the corporate world and academia, but in reality they are not exclusive to any group or individual, rather the property of all, especially in the disorder of democracy.
It is human nature to think and from those thoughts, random or otherwise, come ideas, but without the courage implementation demands they are little more than notions, like a sail without wind.
Ideas have seen the world crammed with people, ideas have created consumerism exhausting the world’s finite resources, ideas have led mankind down the self-destructive path of violence, it is ideas that have worsened our atmosphere and yet, it is ideas that will see us find a way around this impasse.
Shepparton people will have the opportunity to think about the importance of ideas when two keynote lectures from the University of Melbourne’s second Festivalof Ideas are streamed-live into the city in June.
Contemporary life is structured in a way the empties individuals of the courage it takes to pursue ideas, but learning that others think like you, or are at least adventurous in their thinking, is both fortifying and encouraging.
Like all other communities, the Greater Goulburn Valley has an urgent need for ideas.Whatever your opinion about the refurbishment of the Murray Goulburn Irrigation system, it was an idea that brought millions of dollars to the area and inveigled a commercial brightness for an industry that had been struggling with a decade long drought.
However, to be successful an idea doesn’t need commercial worth and be lauded for its monetary value for just as easily, and probably more importantly to society’s wellbeing, it could be a purely social idea that improves the lot of all.
Contemporary life sees us locked into consuming daily doings that are rooted in economics and so permits little or no time for the reflection that allows for the conception of new ideas and along with that, space in our lives for the gestation, birth and nourishment of new ideas.
I urge you to allow yourself two hours later this month during which you can invigorate your thinking by listening to, and watching, two of Australia’s most powerful thinkers during Shepparton’s part in the University of Melbourne’s Festival of Ideas.
